A brand-new stage production of Helen Forrester’s ‘Twopence To Cross The Mersey’ to come to Halifax

The hit stage drama has been revamped and updated and will be at the Victoria Theatre Halifax on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 October.

Featuring a cast of 9 playing over 40 characters, the period drama is set in the early 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. Helen's spendthrift father was declared bankrupt forcing the family to leave behind the nannies, servants, and beautiful middle-class home in the gentler South West of England. With nothing more than the clothes they stood up in, the family of nine took the train to Liverpool where they hoped to rebuild their shattered lives. It came as a terrible shock to find the thriving, wealthy port Helen's father remembered as a boy, the place his own father made his fortune, had long since gone.

Rob Fennah said: “This show is loaded with provenance. Helen was hands-on during the writing process so her army of loyal readers will get to see a true and honest representation of Twopence To Cross The Mersey. Along with the many hours of telephone conversations I had with her from her home in Canada, I have a stack of letters and faxes, crammed with little gems that never found their way into her books. On many occasions, Helen would travel to the UK and we’d get together to talk about the stage adaptation. It was fantastic to have her there, in person, to help me flesh out some of the lesser characters in the books, but ones I felt would help bring the story to life on stage. Over the years, Helen and I became firm friends and I feel very privileged to have been entrusted with her most famous work."

While 12-year-old Helen's parents searched unsuccessfully to find work, she was taken out of school to look after her six younger siblings and the full burden of keeping house fell on Helen’s young shoulders. Having never had to manage a family budget in their previous life, the Forresters found themselves relying on meagre hand-outs from the local parish, charity organisations, and the kindness of strangers.

At the age of 14, Helen had finally had enough of her miserable existence and so began a bitter fight with her mother and father to attend evening school in an effort to educate herself and make her own way in the world. But Helen's parents had no intention of releasing their unpaid slave. They had other plans for their selfish daughter.

Rob continued: “Helen and I would often meet in places that were significant during her early life in Liverpool; places that were close to her heart. The Palm House in Sefton Park is case in point. Readers of Twopence To Cross The Mersey will know how she used to take refuge there as a child during the freezing winter months. The Kings Gap Hotel in Hoylake was another; she was born at her grandmother’s home just around the corner in Warren Road.”

Helen's literary achievements were celebrated in 2020 when an iconic Blue Plaque was unveiled at the late author's family home in Warren Road, a place which featured heavily in her work.

For more information visit www.victoriatheatre.co.uk